The invention relates to an apparatus for separating materials bearing impurities, from the impurities.
In this specification the contaminated materials which are to be purified by separation from the impurities include for example and more especially metals but also other materials such as mineral materials, ceramic materials, cellulose and the like.
One form of apparatus for the separation of impurity-bearing metal from the impurities, as is to be found in DE 36 12 892 C2, involves heating the material to be purified by means of hot waste gases produced by a burner. The apparatus thus comprises a combustion chamber with the burner, wherein the combustion chamber is connected by conduits to respective ones of first and second receiving chambers which are spatially separated from the combustion chamber and which are provided for receiving the contaminated metals. The receiving chambers can be air-tightly closed off relative to the ambient atmosphere by means of a door. The receiving chambers are each connected to the burner by way of a return conduit, and each receiving chamber is also surrounded by a heating chamber connected to a second conduit which branches off the first conduit which provides the connection between the burner combustion chamber and the respective receiving chamber. The conduit connecting the burner combustion chamber to the receiving chamber, and the second conduit which branches off that conduit, each have a control device operatively associated therewith, while the apparatus further comprises a second return conduit between the respective heating chamber and the associated control device. A by-pass conduit is provided between the respective control device and the common burner combustion chamber.